Author: The Rabid Brewer
This past Saturday, K&L Wine Merchants in Redwood City had a Saisons and Sours Beer Tasting. Roughly once a month, K&L buyer Bryan Brick organizes and hosts this event. Fill out a request next time your in K&L to be put on his mailing list.
Although I would love to post a detailed description of each beer complete with photos (ala Mr. BetterBeerBlog,) alas, you’ll just have to settle for my jotted notes and recommendations. I’ve listed the beers roughly in order of my personal preference, not in the order in which I tasted them.
Odonata Beer Company Saison, California 22oz $5.99
This is Odonata Beer’s Co’s flagship beer brewed in Davis and has just recently been released. The brewer, Peter Hooey, was once a shift brewer at Sierra Nevada, Brewmaster at Bison Brewing and has won numerous awards including a Gold at GABF for his saison.
I’ve been following Odonata’s Blog for some time and have eagerly awaited it’s appearance in the Bay Area market. I’ve now tasted it three separate times and unfortunately, my experience has been inconsistent. I suspect improper handling or perhaps glitches in the first production run.
After tasting it this past Saturday at K&L, I found it superb! The nose was light fruit of apricot and pear with a peppery and very light clove spice. The taste was light, but not as dry as some classic saisons. It had a slight residual sweetness, but was very well balanced. It had many of the subtle qualities that I’ve come to associate with fine wines. The finish had just enough bitterness to support the malt with a perfectly balanced pepper spice.
I would definitely recommend this beer with the caveat that there may be some bad bottles out there. Hopefully, Odonata will get this straightened out and we’ll be able to have a wonderful, locally brewed saison of consistent quality, readily available and at a great price.
Haandbryggeriet “Haandbakk” Wild Ale, Norway 500ml $10.99
This was my hands-down favorite of the day. When I mentioned how much I liked it, Bryan said it was also a favorite of his.
Their website describes Haandbakk as a “sour beer using wild yeast and lactic acid bacteria. This beer was brewed in Sept. 06 and has since then been aged in oak barrels until bottling day [Mar. '08]. The beer is blended for roundness but is still very sour and a little bit acetic… 8.5% alc. 20 ibu.”
I don’t consider this beer “very sour” so perhaps the aging has mellowed it a bit. I tend not to like sour beers where the predominant component of flavor is sourness. I prefer more balanced examples where the sourness is one of the players in the symphony that is the beer. This is an example of that kind of balance.
This was poured later in the tasting order and at this point, my notes were getting sparse, but I wrote that it had a chocolatey acidic-ness with a slight touch of solvent in the nose. Though picking up “solvent” isn’t usually a promising sign, the flavor was wonderful. I bought 3 bottles and wish I could have afforded more. I highly recommend this beer.
Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales “La Roja” Wild Ale, Michigan 750ml $12.99
This was one of the last beers in the tasting order so my notes are quite sparse, but this did earn a star on my list. It would have earned a place in my shopping basket if it wasn’t for the fact I’d already grabbed $100 worth of bottles! It is definitely on my list for next time.
Bryan said that this was the beer that started him on the road to wild and sour ales. I noted it as being light with a sweet finish. This is how Jolly Pumpkin describes it: “[A]n amber ale brewed in the Flanders tradition. Deep amber with earthy caramel, spice, and sour fruit notes developed through natural barrel aging. Unfiltered, unpasteurized and blended from barrels ranging in age from two to ten months.”
Like the Haandbakk, this is not an overly sour beer. It has lots of additional complexity and has a fine balance to which the sourness is just a part.
Jolly Pumpkin has many highly rated beers, so you won’t go wrong with this one.
Telegraph Brewing Company “Reserve Wheat Ale” Ale Brewed With Lemon Verbena, California 750ml $10.99
This beer is brewed with brett, lactobacillus and lemon verbena, and also earned a star on my list. Bryan described it as one of Telegraph Brewing’s finest offerings. Though not as good at the Jolly Pumpkin La Roja, it shared many of the same qualities that I prefer in a sour beer: Nicely balanced with complexity that complements the sourness.
This is a limited release and comes in at 5% ABV.
Valley Brewing Company “Decadence” Pomegranate Saison, California 22oz $6.49
I call this, “Ode to Steve Altimari.” Steve was the head brewer for Valley Brewing for well over 10 years and had a well deserved local following. Unfortunately, when the brewery recently changed hands, he was let go. Many in the beer community lamented what happened to Steve and I hear he is busy working on his next gig.
This beer is still from the stock of Altimari brewed beers left in the distribution channel. It was nice to sample one more of Steve’s beers. I found the nose sweet and rich in carmelized sugar. Although a bit tart and quite fruity, I found it wonderfully complex.
If you’re interested in any of Steve’s Valley Brewing Beers, now’s the time to get them before they’re gone forever.
Nøgne-Ø Saison, Norway 500ml $8.49
This brewery was founded by two homebrewers gone pro and has many highly rated offerings. I found this saison good, but not one of my favorites. It had a rich and fruity nose with some peppery spice. It was quite dry and effervescent and finished with a slight grainy astringency.
Brouwerij De Ranke “Saison De Dottignies” Saison, Belgium 330ml $4.49
This saison has an ABV of 5.5% which is closer to where saisons were traditional brewed. It seems like most saisons these days are 6% or more. Even Bryan joked that this was more of a session beer.
I found it quite light and with little spice. The body was a bit thin (perhaps due to the low ABV) but it had a nice noble hop flavor I’m guessing was substantial late additions of saaz.
As this beer is highly rated on both RateBeer and BeerAdvocate, you should probably give it a try. Personally, I prefer other Brouwerij De Ranke offerings such as their Guldenberg.
Green Flash Brewing Company “Summer Saison” Saison, California 22oz $7.99
Another low ABV saison at 4.3%, this beer is brewed with orange curacao , ginger and grains of paradise. What was apparent to my nose was a bit of Belgian yeast funk combined with a Columbus hop pungency. Although I really like many of Green Flash’s other beers, this won’t become a favorite.
Professor Fritz Briem “13th Century Grut Bier,” Germany 16.9oz $6.49
This is not a beer, but a gruit. A gruit is brewed without hops. This particular gruit uses bay leaves, ginger, caraway, anise, rosemarie and gentian. The latter ingredient had me stumped but my trusty iPhone revealed it to be a flowering herb commonly used for digestion problems.
Although I am thoroughly intrigued by gruit (and hope to brew on some day), most of what I got from this was a prominent ginger aroma and flavor with some light peppery spice.
Brasserie Trois Dames Oud Bruin, Switzerland 750ml $19.99
Fairly sour in the nose but quite complex in flavor. You gotta love sours to enjoy this beer.
Hanssens “Experimental Raspberry” Lambic, Belgium 12.7oz $15.99
Bryan explained that Hanssens is a blender, not a brewer, of lambic. Blenders buy from different brewers and create a blend much like wine makers make wine. A quick web search reveals they are the last independently owned blender in Belgium.
The Experimental series are one-offs that Hanssens is doing. The previous one in the series was a “cassis” or black currant. I found this particular lambic quite complex and rich with a rasberry tartness. However, I’ll be the first to admit, that I’m not a fruit beer kind of guy. For those of you that do like fruit lambics, I suspect you will find this one pleasant enough.
Brouwerij Drie Fonteinen Oude Gueze, Belgium 375ml $9.99
Here we get to the point in my notes where I have no notes. Again, not a favorite style of mine. I will keep trying though!
- Brian the Rabid Brewer
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Hello Rabid Brewer…I think that was you about 2 spaces to my right at K&L…I picked up a bottle of the Gruit and the Jolly Pumpkin La Roja out the door. Probably should’ve picked up some Haandbakk, too.
I was at the right side of the bar just before the two ladies, then after they left, between the two homebrewers. Next time, say hi!
Good choices. I would drink either of those again for sure.